comprised of

[Wilson Gray]

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 7:54 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> The one use that you
> will almost never see outside of professional chemistry context is the
> one that's in use here: "any of various compounds that result from
> replacement of part or all of the acid hydrogen of an acid by a metal or
> a group acting like a metal *:* an ionic crystalline compound" (MWOLD
> definition). Well, we got the "acid" part, for sure--sulfate. And
> ammonium radical must be the "metal"--"an ion NH_4^+ derived from
> ammonia by combination with a hydrogen ion and known in compounds (as
> salts) that resemble in properties the compounds of the alkali metals"
> (MWOLD).

Would you believe that it once could be assumed that anyone who'd
drowsed through high-school chemistry knew this? It's another,
sad(dening) example of the dumbing-down of society. Only specialists
know anything, and then it's only knowledge of their specialties.
<sigh!>

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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